Freeform: This Brainbow image taken from a mouse reveals the disposition of axons that regulate the contraction of certain muscles

While its free-flowing forms are like something that might hang in a modern art gallery, this remarkable multicoloured image is not an artwork.

In fact it shows the results of some of the latest techniques in modern neuroscience.

Researchers are modifying cells in the brains of mice and rats with specially developed fluorescent proteins to 'light up' neurons in a way that allows them to study how the brain processes information.

The technique, aptly named Brainbow, allows neuroscientists for the first time to study live brains from the inside.

These Brainbows are helping neuroscientists get ever closer to understanding how these neuron circuits process information about the world as it floods in through the senses.

The technique is derived from the use of proteins from jellyfish which scientists discovered could be injected in the brains of creatures to light up their brain cells from within.

In an interview with Humans Invent, author and neuroscientist Carl Schoonover said: 'Green fluorescent protein was discovered in jellyfish which happened to glow green and people always wondered why that was.

'After many years studying this question people worked out the gene that encodes this protein that glows green.

'Using very common genetic engineering techniques, you can insert that gene into any cell that you want to study… and you can get that cell to glow green.'

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A subset of neurons found in a mouse¿s retina: New imaging techniques are helping neuroscientists to learn more about how the brain processes the flood of information about the world from the sense

Neuron scaffolding. Photomicrograph of the proteins inside of axons that, together, form the elaborate molecular scaffolding that enables a neuron to achieve its elongated form and stretch across the brain's expanse. This sample was prepared by performing an antibody staining, which exploits the extraordinary ability of natural antibodies to recognize specific molecules

THE BIRTH OF NEUROSCIENCE

The birth of modern neuroscience imaging techniques dates back to 1873 with the discovery of a staining technique by Camillo Golgi.

The physician applied a mixture of Silver Nitrate and Potassium Dichromate to a slice of the brain which had the effect of staining certain neurons black. Golgi's picture of a dog's olfactory bulb is shown below.

This technique was put to great use by a man considered by many to be the father of modern neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

The process only stained a few cells, which gave a clear picture of the shape and form of a single neuron hidden among the billions of brain cells that make up the mind.

Mr Schoonover said: 'Nobody actually knows how it works but the outcome is, for whatever reason, only about 1 out of 100 nerve cells in brain tissue get labelled (stained).

'What’s interesting is that the entire cell gets labelled, so it can be hundreds of microns, maybe even millimetres of neuron, that gets filled with black.'

What is especially important about GFP
is that it is applied to the brains of live animals such as mice and
rats so you can study the brain as the animal grows.

Since
first beginning to use GFP, scientists have gone on to develop a range
of different coloured fluorescent proteins that can be encoded into
neurons highlighting with even more clarity individual cells in dense
samples.

Mr Schoonover is a neuroscience PhD candidate at Columbia University who is well known for as a science communicator.

He explained: 'Let’s say I want to study neurons x in area y of the brain and I want to know what they look like and I want to know how they develop over time while the animal is developing and growing, I can deliver the gene-triggering fluorescent protein to those cells during development and just look.

'They are lighting up for me because they are expressing that gene, it’s that simple.'

Mr Schoonover has been using these techniques in studying the brains of rats for his PhD, in an attempt to understand how information transfers through the brain.

'Information comes in from the world, through our eyes, hands, noses, it is very raw unstructured noisy information and what our brain does is effortlessly, automatically and extremely quickly, organize that information and it is an open question how that works,' he explained.

The use of the Brainbow technique is helping neuroscientists get ever closer to understanding how these neuron circuits communicate with each other when processing information from the outside world.

However, in comparison to astronomy, we are at the stage stargazing was before the invention of the telescope, Mr Schoonover believes.

'We are still seeing very small parts of things, we have some interesting and great tools that in their own way are very powerful but we don’t yet have the defining tools we need to look at the brain,' he explained.

This may still be a very nascent field in the grand scheme of things but scientists like Mr Schoonover are inching ever closer to understanding how this complex bundle of neurons actually works.